This invention relates to IC cards.
Recently, various IC cards have been developed, and their improvements have been proposed. U.S. patent specification 4,216,577 (Bernard et al) discloses such an IC card. In the disclosed IC card, an IC chip is mounted on a circuit board with terminals, to which signal and power source voltage are supplied. The circuit board with the IC chip is secured to a hard resin sheet, and is covered by a sheet or film having holes, which correspond to and expose the terminals of the circuit board. In this prior art IC card, the terminals which are provided in the holes of the cover sheet are depressed in level from the top surface of the film to an extend substantially corresponding to the thickness of the cover sheet. Therefore, dust is liable to be collected in the holes, giving rise to failure of the electric connection between the IC card terminals and external device.
The ISO (International Standardization Organization) proposes that four contact segments formed in the IC card are arranged in two rows and the internal between the two rows is 5.62 mm. In the disclosed IC chip noted above, on the other hand, an IC chip is provided between contact rows. With this structure, it is necessary to provided in a 5.62-mm space if the ISO standards are to be conformed. To do so, however, involves difficulties in actual manufacture. In addition, in this structure, probes are contacted to the contacts and the pressure is applied to the contacts from the probes, and this will lead to rupture of the IC chip.
Further, recently it has been considered to store transaction data in IC chips. Doing so, however, requires an increased memory capacity. This is said to require provision of two IC chips in the IC card.